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Here’s what I glean from this article. A total of 9% of a student’s academic achievement is the direct result of in-school factors. Since the entire NCLB system is dedicated to altering in-school factors at the exclusion of all other factors, a single digit improvement in academic achievement is the pinnacle of what NCLB can deliver. Maybe we should consider some other alternatives?

It seems as if Americans are constantly bombarded by reports of doom related to our educational system. A recent documentary, Waiting for Superman, has highlighted the disturbing and sad situations in our schools.

The documentary and most other commentaries on schools and schooling—as well as laws and funding—are based on the notion that somehow teachers are the root cause of the problems facing U.S. schools. The idea seems to be that we need to get rid of a whole bunch of lazy, incompetent teachers.